ما بال عينِك تَقَوى كلَّما ضعفتْ

وما للحظك يسطو وهو ذو سَقَمِ

Why do your eyes grow stronger whenever you become weak?

Why does your glance attack while it is ill?

وما لخدّيك قد زاد احمِرارُهما

حتى كأنّهما قد ضُرِّجا بدمِ

Why has the redness of your cheeks increased

As if they were stained with blood?

وما لثغرك دُرّاً غيرَ منتثِرٍ

وما للفظك درّاً غيرَ منتظِمِ

Why are your lips no longer scattering pearls?

Why is your voice no longer well-ordered?

حُسْناً تحيَّر فيه الناظرون كما

تحيّرتْ فِكَر الألباب في كرمي

A beauty that bewilders all who look, as

my generosity bewildered minds.

ما أبعد الغيثَ من تشبِيهه بِيَدي

وأقربَ الشمسَ من أن تقتَفي شيمي

How far is the rain from being likened to my hands,

and how near is the sun to following my qualities!

ما نام يوماً فؤادي عن تنبُّهه

ولا تَلعْثَم في مجهوله فَهَمي

Never has my heart slept from its vigilance,

nor has my understanding stammered in its unknown.

إذا اكتحلت بنومي استيقظت فِطَني

حتى كأني إذا ما نمتُ لم أنم

When I line my eyes with sleep, my insight awakens

so that when I sleep, it is as if I did not sleep.

فما السيوف سوى ما أَرهفت فِطَنى

ولا الرياضُ سوى ما نَمْقتْ حِكَمي

So swords are nothing but what my insight has sharpened

and meadows are nothing but what my wisdom has cultivated.

فَجرّدوا البيض من رأيي ومن فِكَري

للضرب والتقِطوا الياقوتَ من كَلمي

Strip the eggs of my opinion and my thought

for striking, and pick out the rubies from my words.

كأنما الناس حولي ظُلْمة وأنا

بدرٌ وكيف يقاس البدرُ بالظُّلَم

It is as if the people around me are darkness and I

am the moon. How can the moon be compared to shadows?

قوم كأنّ الزمان المستقيم لهمْ

هَجا بهم نفسَه أو عابَها بِهِمِ

A people, as if either the steady time

railed at them or blamed them.